The Brandywine Heights Area School District hosted its 3rd Annual Educational Showcase Day on Nov. 15 at Brandywine Heights Elementary School.
“Today’s event is to highlight our students’ work through the showcase as well as demonstrating what they’ve learned and actually doing performances, (music, art and a mini play),” said event organizer Carolyn Hanych-Fitch, Director of Brandywine Heights Virtual Academy and Instructional Technology Specialist. “It’s a fantastic day for our parents and community to learn about what our school is and really showcase everything that we have.”
Parents, community members, school administration and School Board members were invited to a showcase of students’ work and an expo of educational and community programs. Each year, the Showcase Day highlighted a school building, this year the elementary school was spotlighted.
“We have grade level projects to show off, encores, STEM, library, computers, music, different things going on that each kid is taking ownership of highlighting, prepared to talk about and show off some of the stuff that they’re doing in the classroom,” said Brandywine Heights Elementary Principal Stephanie Kelly.
The Showcase Day was held in conjunction with Parent Visitation Day.
“We have parents visiting classrooms, stopping here (at the Showcase) all morning,” said Kelly. “To show our community, show our parents, show our families that the great things that are happening in our school.”
Tables were set up in the cafeteria to share information about programs, including Watch DOG Dads, the Backpack Campaign, PTC, Explorer program, art class Van Gogh finger puppets project, 2nd and 4th grade pen pals, 1st grade engineers, Too Good For Drugs program, and Pre-K Counts, as well as parent resources and the Brandywine Heights Community Task Force.
Brandywine Heights School Board President Elizabeth Huhn liked seeing the diversity of the showcase.
“The other thing that is fantastic is that the young people are presenting and they have such pride and enthusiasm about their learning. They’re really into it,” said Huhn. “The school leadership to help set out the vision for programs like this that showcase everything that we’re doing is really special in terms of leading the way. The leadership here at the administrative level and at the staff level is terrific. It’s a great blend of teachers and young people coming together, from an education perspective to really open up ideas and open up kids’ minds to all of the possibilities.”
Huhn was also pleased with the number of parents and community members who attended the showcase.
“It’s exciting that this is so well attended as well. We do a lot of tremendous things here and everybody works really hard so it’s a neat opportunity to have folks come in and see all of the terrific learning that’s happening here.”
Brandywine Heights Superintendent Andrew Potteiger’s favorite part of the showcase day was to see all of the excitement, to see parents, School Board members and community members visiting the Elementary School.
“Being able to highlight the amazing programs we’re able to offer in the school district,” said Potteiger. “We have so many great things happening and often we’re not able to celebrate those successes and this is an opportunity for us to celebrate the successes and show what happens on a daily basis. People don’t always get to see that and this is our opportunity to shine.”
